Amrapali News

Amrapali Group has committed a “first degree crime” by cheating thousands of home buyers and no matter how powerful the people behind this mess they will be booked and prosecuted, the Supreme Court said Tuesday.
“Fate is written on the wall” for the group and its directors, the top court said while declining to hear their claims of no wrong doing.
The embattled real estate firm “cheated everybody including home buyers, banks and authorities and indulged in cartelization to prevent the Debt Recovery Tribunal from auctioning its unencumbered properties”, it said. “The limit of your fraud touched the sky.”
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit said it cannot believe the justification given by Amrapali for alleged diversion of funds of over Rs 3,500 crore, looking at its dubious conduct.
“You have committed a first degree crime by cheating thousands of home buyers. We should have cancelled the licences of statutory auditors of Amrapali for indulging in fraudulent practise long back and sent them to jail.
“We are saying in open court that there are powerful people behind this mess but no matter how powerful they are, we will book them and prosecute them. We are not going to spare anybody,” the bench said.
The hard hitting remarks of the bench came after senior advocates Geeta Luthra and Gaurav Bhatia, appearing for the group, said there was no wrong doing done on their part and there was no diversion of Rs 3,500 crore as claimed by the court appointed forensic auditors.
Luthra said forensic auditors have erred on various aspects in their report like they had claimed that not a single penny was invested by directors of Amrapali but in reality Rs 60 to Rs 70 crore was put in by them.
“We have to believe the forensic auditors and their report looking at your dubious conduct. We believe them. You (Amrapali) have yourself admitted in your earlier affidavit that Rs 2,990 crore of home buyers money was diverted and now you are claiming that there was no diversion. You have made a peon as your director and he purchases shares worth crores of rupees for Amrapali. Is this not correct,” the bench said.
Luthra said the group acted in a bona fide manner and in the interest of home buyers but the problems started after the company ran into litigation.
Amrapali Group claimed that they had received Rs 11,057 crore from the home buyers and they have constructed five projects in Indirapuram of Delhi-NCR and gave their possession to home buyers.
“Your (Amrapali Group and its directors) fate is written on the wall. We are not inclined to hear your bona fide claims looking at your dubious conduct,” the bench said.
At the outset, the bench also pulled up Bank of Baroda and other lenders, who have given hefty loans to Amrapali Group for failing to monitor and control the diversion and usage of funds by the reality firms.
The day long hearing remained inconclusive and would continue tomorrow.
Two forensic auditors — Pawan Agrawal and Ravi Bhatia — in their fresh report said yesterday that Amrapali has diverted over Rs 3,500 crore of home buyers money to different projects.
The top court had allowed the I-T department and the EOW to access the report of forensic auditors in their probe but restrained them from summoning them.
Forensic auditors in their fresh supplementary report pointed out that promoters of Amrapali did not invest a single penny in real estate firm and home buyers money was used for the construction of high rise buildings.
They pointed out that there were irregularities in the sale of Amrapali’s hotels in Bareilly of Uttar Pradesh and Deoghar of Jharkhand.
Agrawal had pointed out that funds over Rs 400 crore were diverted through three companies Bihariji Highrise Pvt Ltd, Jotindra Steel and Tubes Ltd and Mauria Udyog Ltd.
On February 28, the apex court had allowed the Delhi police to arrest Amrapali group CMD Anil Sharma and two directors on a complaint that home-buyers of their various housing projects were cheated and duped of their funds.
The top court, which is seized of several pleas of home-buyers seeking possession of around 42,000 flats booked in projects of the Amrapali group, also ordered attachment of personal properties of the CMD and directors — Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar.
The trio, under the detention of Uttar Pradesh police and kept in a hotel at Noida since October 9 last year by the apex court for not complying with its orders, was in for a shock when the court ordered the arrest on a plea by Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police saying that it wanted to quiz them in a separate cheating case.
The court had also appointed a valuer to ascertain the exact value of 5,229 unsold flats including those booked by Amrapali for just Rs 1, Rs 11 and Rs 12 and asked the valuer to submit its report.

NEW DELHI: The embattled Amrapali group has diverted over Rs 3,500 crore of home buyers money to different projects, the forensic auditors Tuesday told the Supreme Court which allowed the I-T department and the EOW to access their fresh report.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit was told by two forensic auditors — Pawan Agrawal and Ravi Bhatia — that they have received notices from I-T department and the Economic Offence Wing seeking the audit report as also their presence to explain the same.
The top court, which accepted the report, allowed the forensic auditors to share a copy with the investigating agencies.
“It is brought to our notice that Commissioner of Police, Economic Offences Wing requires Report of the Forensic Auditors. We permit the Forensic Auditors to furnish the Report to the Economic Offences Wing but they shall not be summoned for any purpose whatsoever to aid in the investigation,” the bench said.
The top court said that the case has to see the “light of the day” and directed the Amrapali Group to file its reply within a day or two to the reports submitted by forensic auditors.
Agrawal pointed to a recent order passed by Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), which has been asked by the court to auction the attached and unencumbered properties of Amrapali Group — in which some adverse remarks were made against the court appointed auditors.
“DRT has passed an order day before yesterday seeking our presence and said that we (Agrawal and Bhatia) were hampering the progress of the case,” he told the bench which said that it will clarify the order of DRT and would exempt them from appearing before the tribunal.
“The DRT is requested not to assume that Forensic Auditors are hampering the auction proceedings. They are rather assisting this Court in the entire process and we appreciate the able assistance rendered by them,” the bench said in its order.
Forensic auditors in their fresh supplementary report pointed out that till now they have detected that over Rs 3,500 crore of home buyers money was diverted by Amrapali Group through different companies to other projects.
They said that promoters of Amrapali did not invested a single penny in real estate firm and home buyers money was used for the construction of high rise buildings.
They pointed out that there were irregularities in the sale of Amrapali’s hotel in Bareilly of Uttar Pradesh while in actuality the property was not sold.
Agrawal also pointed out that funds over Rs 400 crore were diverted through three companies Bihariji Highrise Pvt Ltd, Jotindra Steel and Tubes Ltd and Mauria Udyog Ltd.
“Surekha family, which owned Jotindra Steel and Mauria Udyog were running the show of Amrapali after 2015 and were also involved in diversion of home buyers money. Surekha family members were authorised signatory for Amrapali and were also directors in each of the group companies,” the auditors said.
The bench, then asked the counsel appearing for Jotindra Steel and Tubes Ltd, and Mauria Udyog Ltd to file affidavit on behalf of Akhil Sureka, Managing Director, M/s. Jotindra Steel and Tubes Ltd., and Navneet Sureka, Managing Director of M/s. Mauria Udyog Ltd by tomorrow.
The auditors further pointed out that irregularities were also detected in the sale of a hotel owned by Amrapali in Deoghar in Jharkhand.
Agrawal said that property in Deoghar was sold for around Rs 18 crore out of which the buyer cleared Rs 7 crore loan liability of Amrapali and Rs 10.82 crores were paid in the month of June, 2018, when the matter was subjudice in the court.
“This payment of Rs 10.82 crore was paid through demand draft in the name of Amrapali. Incidentally, entry of this amount cannot be found in any of the book of accounts of Amrapali ,” he said.
They said the funds were diverted through bogus bills, advance payments to directors and high ranking officials of the Group and through ghost bookings of flats.
The day-long hearing in the matter remained inconclusive and the bench asked the forensic auditor to file a summary compilation of final and supplementary report.
On February 28, the apex court had allowed the Delhi police to arrest and interrogate in custody Amrapali group CMD Anil Sharma and two directors on a complaint that home-buyers of their various housing projects were cheated and duped of their funds.
The top court, which is seized of several pleas of home-buyers seeking possession of around 42,000 flats booked in projects of the Amrapali group, also ordered attachment of personal properties of the CMD and directors — Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar.
The trio, under detention of the Uttar Pradesh police and kept in a hotel at Noida since October 9 last year by the apex court for not complying with its orders, was in for a shock when the court ordered the arrest on a plea by Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police saying that it wanted to quiz them in a separate cheating case.
The court had also appointed a valuer to ascertain the exact value of 5,229 unsold flats including those booked by Amrapali for just Rs 1, Rs 11 and Rs 12 and asked the valuer to submit its report.

The Supreme Court identified 16 estates belonging to beleaguered property developer Amrapali Group to raise funds for stalled projects. The court directed the sale of assets owned by all of the company’s directors, their family members and related companies. The case relates to the embattled Amrapali Group which has failed to hand over possession of flats to around 42,000 homebuyers.

The property developer has been facing the wrath of the Supreme Court after homebuyers moved the court for not getting their flats delivered on time. Setting September 12 as the next date of hearing in the case, the Supreme Court asked for a list of unencumbered assets of the company’s directors.

Here are five things to know:

1. National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) will conduct a valuation of the properties belonging to the directors of the Amrapali group, the court ruled on Thursday. State-run construction company NBCC had earlier this week told the Supreme Court that it was ready to undertake projects of the Amrapali Group of companies.

2. On Thursday, the Supreme Court ordered a forensic audit of bank accounts from 2008. In August this year, it had directed the group companies to produce before it details of all the bank accounts since 2008 and ordered the freezing of bank accounts of the directors of its 40 firms, slamming the group for playing “fraud” and “dirty games” with the court.

3. Assuring NBCC of funds to complete 46,575 flats of crisis-hit Amrapali Group at an estimated cost of Rs. 8,500 crore, the court had on Tuesday asked the Amrapali Group to cooperate with the auditors or face sealing of its premises and forensic audit of accounts of all entities including directors, their wives and daughters, according to news agency Press Trust of India.

4. In May, the apex court had spotted diversion of funds to the tune of over Rs. 2,700 crores by the Amrapali Group and sought details of financial transactions made by the company and its statement of accounts.

5. The company had earlier told the top court in an affidavit that it was not in a position to complete the projects and hand over the possession of flats to over 42,000 homebuyers in a time-bound manner.

Amrapali today said in the Supreme Court that it is in talks with National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) to take over and complete it’s under construction projects.

The statement comes after a committee was set up by the Uttar Pradesh government last week, which asked NBCC to explore the possibility of completing the much-delayed projects of Amrapali and few other builders.

NBCC through its counsel said that the proposal is currently under consideration.

It is not clear as to which projects, if approved, will be taken over by NBCC.

Amrapali is to develop a total of 40,987 units which requires Rs 5,112 crore to complete. Co-developers such as Noida-based Galaxy Group, IIFL-Viridian consortium and Kanodia Cement were roped-in to complete these projects.

Sources say that while construction activity has started in the projects where Galaxy is a co-developer, all other projects have seen no movement.

Meanwhile, the central government has appointed a monitoring committee to oversee various delayed projects in Noida including those of Amrapali. It will work under the housing and urban affairs ministry.

The committee held a meeting today with NBCC, Noida authority, Greater Noida authority and Amrapali.

The apex court said that this is the last adjournment being granted in the case.

All directors of Amrapali have been ordered to be personally present on the next hearing to be held on August 1. They have also been asked to submit their financial statements and details of personal assets.

The Supreme Court was told on Wednesday that real estate giant Amrapali NSE 0.00 % will need to invest around Rs 2,000 crore to finish nine projects in Noida and Greater Noida, which are on the verge of completion, dampening the hopes of thousands of homebuyers to get possession of their flats any time soon.
In an estimate submitted before a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit, the court was told that around Rs 452 crore would be needed for five projects in Noida where partial possession has been given to buyers but the investment was needed to install lifts and other essential infrastructure to make the buildings habitable. These projects are Amrapali Sapphire, Amrapali Zodiac, Amrapali Eden Park and Amrapali Silicon City -I, II, where the total number of flats is 6,917.
The proposal was prepared on the basis of joint inspection reports prepared by the developers and home-buyers after visiting the site to check the stage of construction. Advocate M L Lahoty, appearing for home-buyers, placed before the bench a chart on the amount required to be invested to complete the projects.
Lahoty told the bench that four projects in Greater Noida were in an advanced stage of construction and possession could be handed over to buyers in 3-12 months. He, however, said an amount of Rs 1500 crore would be required to complete the projects of Leisure Park, Amrapali Golf Homes, Amrapali Centurian Park and Verona Heights which have together 2753 flats.
Amrapali told the bench that it was not possible to invest such a huge amount at one go and projects would be completed one by one. Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the company, contended that Amrapali is ready to allocate flats to buyers in those projects which were ready for possession. The bench, however, asked the company to give details of money received by it from home-buyers and the amount it invested in housing projects to find out whether the company had syphoned off money. It asked the developer to give a roadmap on April 17.

As there are as many as 43 projects being developed by the group and are at different stage of construction, the bench decided to deal with each project separately. It said projects would be completed under its supervision to protect the interest of buyers.

The bench was hearing a batch of petitions filed by hundreds of home-buyers who approached the court to protect their investment as Amrapali failed to give possession of flats. They are also facing uncertainty with Amrapali’s sister firm facing insolvency proceedings. The petitioners have booked homes in Amrapali’s various project in Noida and Greater Noida.
They moved SC after National Company Law Tribunal(NCLT) initiated Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process and the tribunal restrained the company from transferring or disposing of its assets on a plea of Bank of Baroda, which led a consortium of banks while giving a loan to the company.

Interim Resolution Professional(IRP) has taken over the affairs of Amrapali after NCLT admitted the insolvency proceedings initiated by Bank of Baroda against the firm on September 4 last year. As the investment made by home-buyers has been put at the bottom in the priority list in insolvency proceedings,
they could be refunded only after banks recovered their dues after selling the assets of the company. But the apex court had said that the interests of the home-buyers could not be sacrificed.

Sources: EconomicTimes.com

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